>Naomi (and Sergey)
>
>Regarding the XML approach for variable lists...there are new XML capabilities in SQL 2005 that eliminate the need for sp_xml_preparedocument and OPENXML. You can basically "shred" the XML using new XQUERY capabilities to create a reusable table-valued UDF. (I covered this in a prior CoDe article):
>
>

>CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[XML2TableVar]
>(  @XMLString XML)
>RETURNS
>   @tPKList TABLE  ( PKValue int)
>
>AS
>BEGIN
>            INSERT INTO @tPKList
>              SELECT Tbl.Col.value('.','int')
>                  FROM   @XMLString.nodes('//PKValue') Tbl( Col )
>
>   RETURN
>END
>

>
>And then use it like this:
>
>

>DECLARE @XMLString XML
>SET @XMLString ='<Customers>
>                 <Customer>
>                      <PKValue>2</PKValue>
>                      <PKValue>5</PKValue>
>                   </Customer>
>                  </Customers>'
>
>
>-- Show the contents
>SELECT  * FROM [dbo].[XML2TableVar] (@XMLString) CustList
>
>-- Perform a JOIN using the UDF
>SELECT Customers.* FROM Customers
>                        JOIN [dbo].[XML2TableVar] (@XMLString) CustList
>                                    ON Customers.CustomerPK = CustList.PKValue
>

>
>Obviously, you'd need to modify this to support character columns, but you get the idea...
>
>
>Kevin

Thanks a lot for your input, Kevin.